Bergen Community College baseball player gets the greatest kind of save

Anthony Urdaneta, a student and baseball player at Bergen Community College, and son Arian sharing a moment at home in West New York.

The conversations with God were Anthony Urdaneta's last hope.

His newborn son lay in a hospital incubator, clinging to life. Each update from the doctors brought only more grim news.

So the Bergen Community College baseball player prayed for the latest crisis to pass. And he prayed for little Arian's life.

But no one seemed to be listening.

The medical mystery that sent Arian to three hospitals during his first three weeks yielded a grim prognosis in October.

He needed a liver transplant or he would die. And doctors doubted he would survive the complex surgery.

"We didn't know what was going to happen next," Urdaneta said in a halting monotone. "We didn't know what was going to go wrong with him today.

"They basically were telling us it was going to be very hard for him to survive."

Somehow, Arian did. And so did Urdaneta.

He tackled fatherhood, college and baseball all at once in the fall. And the West New York resident did it while facing his son's emotionally wrenching first five months. Arian was diagnosed with hemochromatosis, a rare and often fatal disorder in infants that left his liver nonfunctional.

But Urdaneta, 20, managed to juggle vigils at Arian's incubator while attending his first year of college — he pulled a 3.0 GPA in his first semester — and carving a role off the bench as a Bulldogs first baseman/reliever.

He found time for homework and to support his girlfriend of two years, Cindy Garcia. He learned how to change diapers. He relearned how to pitch after not taking the mound since he was 14 or 15.

And the Memorial High School product did it all on just five or six hours of sleep a night and without a driver's license.

"It was hard. I don't know how I managed to still do homework," Urdaneta said.

"I'm really proud of him," said Garcia, 28. "He did so good in school even with all the things that we've been through."

Baseball serves as his outlet. Urdaneta has played in seven games for BCC (5-5), hitting .167 with two RBI and a .375 on-base percentage.

"He's definitely one of the [students] who's had it the toughest," athletic director Jorge Hernandez said. "He has a big heart."

Urdaneta softly cradled Arian's head in his left hand on a recent afternoon, staring down at a miracle.

A feeding tube ran inside the cooing infant's left nostril, part of a regiment that keeps calories flowing into him 24 hours a day. He needs the extra nutrients to help him both heal and grow.

"Just having him home, spending time with him is the best part of being a dad," said Urdaneta, who plans to become a physical education teacher.